MSNBC mischaracterizes Romney remarks

Discussing how the public sector suffers from a lack of competition, Romney told the audience about an optometrist who wanted to change his address and subsequently received 33 pages of paperwork from the federal government, which begat a months-long bureaucratic nightmare during which the optometrist in question wasn't receiving his checks. "That's how government works," Romney said.

Then, to illustrate the advantages of competition in the private sector, Romney shared an anecdote from his visit to the local WaWa chain store. "I was at WaWas, I went in to order a sandwich. You press a little touchtone keypad -- you touch this, touch this, go pay the cashier -- there’s your sandwich. It’s amazing. People in the private sector have learned how to compete. It's time to bring some competition to the federal government."

But in the MSNBC clip, which aired on Andrea Mitchell Reports, Romney's remarks begin with the WaWa anecdote and end at "It's amazing," an edit -- first noted by conservative blogger Sooper Mexican -- that makes it seem as though Romney was expressing amazement at the advent of touchtone screens.

The MSNBC clip feeds into the narrative, beloved by some on the left, that Romney is a 1950's throwback. After the clip cut, Mitchell and MSNBC contributor Chris Cillizza broke out into laughter -- which is understandable, given that they both had been led to believe that Romney was wowed by a simple machine. In fact, what Romney found so "amazing" was the discord between private sector innovation and public sector bureaucracy.